MADISON, WIS. — This Saturday, Feb. 8, Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District celebrates 95 years of protecting area lakes and the health of residents and visitors as the area’s regional clean water utility.
“Our driving purpose is to protect public health and the environment by safely and effectively moving and treating the area’s wastewater, a job we have done reliably since the District was formed in 1930,” says Eric Dundee, the District’s Executive Director, who stepped into the role in early January.
One of the nation’s oldest regional clean water utilities, the District has long been a leader and innovator in the sector. A few examples include:
- 1930s: District begins reusing biogas produced from its treatment process. Today, the Nine Springs Treatment Plant produces about 315 million cubic feet of biogas annually, which could provide energy for about 2,650 homes.
- 1980s: A District staff member developed and obtained a patent to automate a laboratory analysis process.
- 1986: Brought the world’s largest (at the time) ultraviolet (UV) disinfection system online, eliminating the use of chlorine as a final step in the wastewater treatment process.
- 2012: The District initiated the Yahara WINS pilot project with more than 30 municipal partners and stakeholders. Now at full implementation, this long-term initiative helps improve local water quality by supporting projects to keep phosphorus on the land and out of the water. In 2023, WINS prevented 54,541 pounds of phosphorus from entering local waters.
- 2014: The District became one of the first wastewater utilities in the United States to adopt struvite harvesting technology, which recovers valuable nutrients from wastewater, which is then used to create fertilizer.
The District is also an award-winning leader in pollution prevention, inspiring change in chloride reduction nationally through the formation of Wisconsin Salt Wise and other salt use reduction efforts.
“Our utility looks for opportunity in everything we do,” says Dundee. “We work hard to do better so we can all live better. That has been a constant for the last 95 years and will continue into the future.”
Today, the District serves about 429,000 people in 24 Madison-area customer communities. Each day, the District cleans about 37 million gallons of wastewater at the Nine Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant, enough to fill the bottom bowl of Camp Randall.
The utility continues to invest in critical infrastructure improvements to ensure sustainable and reliable service. For instance, upcoming projects at the plant include electrical systems upgrades to ensure uptime and infrastructure replacements to increase treatment efficiency and support redundancy. District staff are also working on several projects in the collection system to rehabilitate aging pumps and pipes and to expand sewer capacity in fast-growing parts of the District’s service area, such as Waunakee, Verona and Fitchburg.
“We provide an unseen but essential service for residents, businesses and visitors to the area 24/7, 365 days a year,” says Dundee. “Flushing a toilet or running water down a drain is not magic. It’s the start of a complex and critical process to move and clean wastewater, returning it to the environment. The District is proud of its work to support clean water and communities.”
